Citywide Vacuum

I came across a rare-ish recording a couple years ago from a group of now well known and even renowned musicians, fresh from their high school days, that got together and jammed around with live jungle beats, neo-jazz harmonies and fun synth sounds, recording an album under the moniker Microgroove. Thinking it was totally novel, and even groundbreaking — recorded around 1995 when jungle was hardly old enough to be identifiable outside of a rave, never mind passé — I was flabbergasted as to why no one knew or really cared about the album. The answer, ultimately, was that it was too full of unbridled fusion and experimentation, unchecked by structured songwriting, and laden with painful lyricism from a poised chanteuse. Citywide Vacuum, being similarly made up of collaborative elements in style and membership, suffer from those same drawbacks. One thing Pact does have going for it though is field recordings.